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By Irene KlotzReuters • Sunday June 9, 2013 8:48 AM

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An asteroid the size of a small truck zoomed past Earth four times closer
than the moon yesterday. It was the latest in a parade of visiting celestial objects that has
raised awareness of potentially hazardous impacts on the planet.

NASA said Asteroid 2013 LR6 was discovered about a day before its closest approach to Earth,
which occurred at 12:42 a.m. EDT yesterday about 65,000 miles over the Indian Ocean, south of
Tasmania, Australia. The 30-foot-wide asteroid posed no threat.

A week ago, a comparatively huge 1.7-mile-wide asteroid named QE2, with a moon in tow, passed
3.6 million miles from Earth. On Feb. 15, a small asteroid exploded in the atmosphere over
Chelyabinsk, Russia; more than 1,500 people were injured by flying debris. That same day, an
unrelated asteroid passed just 17,200 miles from Earth, closer than the communication satellites
that ring the planet.

NASA says it has found about 95 percent of the large asteroids — those whose diameters are
two-thirds of a mile or larger — whose orbits take them relatively close to Earth.